Storm Hawks: Too Young For Death
by Rickudemus
Summary: Far ahead in the future, Aerrow is living happily with his son, Rook, who he named after his father. Rook is like his father, acting wild and crazy, but gets into an accident... Mentioned Stork x Finn


The world of Atmos; it was a peaceful place, since the cyclonians had been long defeated by the Storm Hawks. It had been over twenty years when the last cyclonians were seen in Atmos. The world had been very calm afterwards and the Storm Hawks saw no reason to stay together anymore. They promised to each other they would always be the Storm Hawks and they would always be partners and friends. And most of all, a family.

They all went to live in their own home terras, except Stork, who decided to live with Finn on terra Lynn. They created their own families and lived their own lives. Of course they saw each other from time to time, letting their children know each other and all.

But of course, Stork and Finn didn't have any kids. They lived as a duo for a long time, until the blonde became very ill and passed away. Stork knew that his world would be over after his lover was gone and he even tried to commit suicide, but luckily Aerrow had stopped the merb from doing so. He tried to explain Stork that Finn would never want his life partner to do such thing and after a long time, Stork finally found his will to live. He was happy, but he would grieve after his deceased lover from time to time, wishing that his time would come soon as well.

Aerrow feared that the merb would try to take out his life again, so he let Stork live at his house as long as he wanted. The red-haired ex-leader had one son; his wife died when giving birth to her child, which Aerrow thought was very strange and ironic, since the same happened to his mother as well. But whatever it may have been, his son was alive and well. And to show the respect to his own father, who was the previous leader of the Storm Hawks, he had named his son Rook.

He thought he could now understand everything his father had once said and taught to him. He understood fully, what being a father meant and felt like. He was really happy.

He was watching his son play with the skimmer he had used when cyclonians were still in Atmos. They were in a huge field that had nothing else, but green grass and flowers of many colours. Aerrow was sitting on the field, not really feeling like doing anything else, but just watching his fourteen year old son play. The boy acted very differently from Aerrow when he was his age. He was more childish and not very responsible. Then again, there was really no good reason to act so mature in his age.

The boy didn't look anything like his father did. He had more brownish hair, his eyes were violet and his face was not like the old man's. All in all, the boy resembled Aerrow's wife the most.

Aerrow himself still looked pretty much the same as always, except his hair was a bit longer than it used to be. Stork in the other hand had much shorter hair.

Stork was sitting few steps away from Aerrow, staring the sky with narrowed eyes. His expression was blank and somehow, Aerrow noticed this. "You're dreaming stupid things again, Stork." The red-haired man smiled weakly.

"It's been five years..." Stork mumbled, closing his eyes. "I miss him so much..."

"I know." Aerrow looked up in the sky, the wind blowing gently past them. "We all do."

The merb chuckled at the wind. "Funny." He opened his eyes again, staring at the direction the breeze came from. "This wind feels like him."

Aerrow returned a chuckle back to him. "Doesn't it just." He looked back over to his son, who was flying in circles up in the air. He couldn't help but to smile at the boy's actions. He was happy that the boy got a childhood that he himself never received.

"Dad, look!" Little Rook grinned widely, showing few tricks he thought he had invented. Aerrow didn't have the guts to tell him that it was his long deceased grandfather, who had made up all those moves. He knew the boy didn't look like the old man, not a one bit, but he sure had his spirit. The grins the boy made proved it.

His goofy grin never disappeared; in fact, it just got wider and crazier by every stunt he committed, making his father look more and more worried. "Rook, don't do anything harsh! That skimmer isn't in as good condition as it was before and your skills aren't that superior yet!"

"Don't worry, dad! I'm gonna be O~K~" The boy chirped, performing another one of his stunts, which couldn't have gone wrong any worse. The skimmer couldn't take the pressure the boy was giving it, making the engine let out strange sounds. Not being able to take it anymore, the vehicle decided to head for the ground, the boy so scared that he couldn't even scream.

"Rook!" Aerrow yelled, trying to figure out how to save his one and only son.

Then, it was suddenly silent.

When Rook woke up, all he saw was deep darkness. He feared that he had gone blind, but when he sat up, he saw strange looking gates up ahead. A black and silver, evil looking gate and a white and gold gate that gave a very warm feeling to the boy.

He stood up, taking one step closer to the gates. "My, aren't you young. What are you doing here?" He heard someone speak to him, making him turn around quickly. He saw a boy about his age sitting on a grey coloured bench, which was very odd looking. The person was wearing a grey hat, sunglasses, a long dirty white scarf and a long grey jacket. All in all, he was nearly colourless.

The stranger smiled brightly, patting the spot next to him, inviting the brown haired boy to sit down. "Someone your age shouldn't be here." He spoke gently, poking his sunglasses.

"Wha... What is this place...?" Rook asked, getting very nervous about the place. "It's so dark and scary... Except that gate... What is it? Should I go in there?"

"No." The stranger gave the boy a blank stare, giving him the shivers. "You can't go there. You still have a chance to get back."

"Get back? To where?" Rook felt extremely confused. He kept staring at the stranger with a helpless look on his face, afraid that he will be left alone.

"To the book of living." Stranger smiled gently, making the other boy even more confused.

"H-huh?"

"You're dead."

"W-what?" Rook stood up faster than ever, looking around in complete fear. "D-dead?"

"Calm down. You can still make it back, since it isn't your time yet." Stranger explained, taking a more comfortable position on his seat.

"I-I can?" H-how?" The boy panicked, watching the unknown person, who invited him to sit down on the bench again.

"First, calm down." He sat up straight, placing his arms on his lap. He tilted his head and closed his eyes, still smiling. "If you want to return, don't lose to your fear." He explained, not being afraid of the darkness one bit. "The darkness won't hurt you. In fact, it doesn't care about you at all, so don't worry."

"I-is that s-so..." Rook calmed down a little, sitting back down. He took a deep breath, making the stranger chuckled.

"You're a funny kid, Rook." He gave the boy a wider smiled, placing his hand on top of his head and ruffled his hair.

"...you know my name?" The boy blinked in surprise, getting a familiar feeling from the stranger. "Just... Who are you?"

"That doesn't matter now, my friend." Stranger's smile never faded away. He just sat there, not saying a word for a moment. "Aerrow is very worried." He chuckled, keeping a short pause. "Your father."

"Dad is...?"

"Yes. Even Stork." He slowly opened his eyes again, leaving them slightly open. "I can see tears in their faces." Rook could swear he could sense sadness within the mysterious boy.

"I remember... I was flying with dad's skimmer and I made few tricks and the skimmer started acting up and I headed towards the ground...!" Rook panicked, hugging himself tightly, tears flowing down his cheeks. "Dad..."

The stranger took off his glasses, putting them inside the pocket that was on the right side of his jacket. He leaned closer to the boy and hugged him tightly.

"I want dad... I want dad... I want dad..." Rook whined, crying hard. "I want my dad!" He shouted, grabbing the stranger's arms tightly and staring deep into his eyes, looking very hopeless. "Please! I want to go back to my dad!"

A chuckle escaped from the stranger as he stood up with the boy. He took two steps away from the bench, smiling happily to him. His eyes were very bright blue, which stunned Rook completely. The stranger grabbed the boy's shoulders, tilting his head again.

"You have a long life ahead of you, Rook. Now, why don't you go and enjoy it." The stranger grinned widely, receiving a confused stare from the boy.

"Huh, what?" Rook blinked, gasping when the unknown person pushed him down. "Hey, what?" He was readying himself to hit the floor, but instead he slowly fell down into a hole that was filled with light.

"Bye bye, Rook~" The stranger chirped, waving his hand. "And tell that crazy merb that his precious is very unhappy with his suicide attempts, but he still loves him and will always wait for him." Rook stared at the person, everything around him getting covered in bright light.

"Rook! Rook!" Someone shouted from very close, but Rook couldn't really recall who it was. But the closer he came to waking up, the better he remembered the voice. He opened his eyes slowly, his sight returning little by little.

"D-dad...?" He mumbled, seeing his father's worried face above him. His body felt cold and it hurt so badly that he couldn't even move. "It... It hurts..."

"Rook..." Aerrow hugged the boy gently, smiling while letting tears run down his cheeks. "Thank god you're alive..."

"I'm sorry, dad..." Rook mumbled, coughing weakly. He heard someone walking towards him and placing something noisy next to him.

"Sorry I took so long... I'll start treating him instantly..." The voice belonged to Stork. Rook looked up at him, blinking lazily. He then looked back at his father.

"Dad... I was dead... And I think I saw the gates to Heaven and Hell..."

"Don't speak such nonsense, Rook..." Aerrow watched his son in worry, trying to get him to be quiet so that he wouldn't lose more of his energy.

"I did. And I saw a person... He felt familiar... He had blue eyes and he helped me to come back to life. And he told me to give a message to Mr. Stork." Rook spoke quietly, gasping once in a while.

Stork gave the boy a long stare, not really sure what to say. "...a message? To me?"

The young boy nodded. "Yeah... He told me to tell that crazy merb that his precious is very unhappy with his suicide attempts, but he still loves him and will always wait for him."

Both Aerrow and Stork stared at the young one in shock. Rook stared back, getting confused once again. "Thank you, Rook..." Stork smiled, starting to cry at the same time. "Thank you so much..." He continued treating the boy, who still didn't understand anything.

"What did I do, dad...?"

Aerrow smiled, rubbing his eyes so that he wouldn't seem too weak because of the tears. "Don't worry about it, my son. Just rest now and we'll fix you." The boy nodded, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. The ex-leader looked up to the merb, smiling slightly. "He saw your precious, huh..."

The merb just nodded, still smiling while letting the tears drop down on the ground. "He's a one strange bastard... That Finn..."

"Yup. Helping us even after death..." They both chuckled, neither of them saying anything further.


End file.
